Leadership and democratic school governance. A study in Italy and Portugal

Journal title CADMO
Author/s Francesca Fioretti
Publishing Year 2024 Issue 2023/2
Language Italian Pages 15 P. 78-92 File size 202 KB
DOI 10.3280/CAD2023-002006
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

In democratic school governance, characterized by participative decisionmaking, the Principal occupies a central role in fostering the creation of an organizational system that can implement school community collaboration and student learning outcomes. With reference to the current national legislation, the present study carried out in Italy and Portugal offers a contribution to research on the role of the participation of the school community in school governance. The analysis conducted on a total of eight semi-structured interviews with one Italian Vice Principal, three Italian Principals and four Portuguese Principals of lower secondary schools is reported. The results show operational strategies implemented at the initiative of schools that can promote collaborative and democratic school governance through the active involvement of the school community in the decision-making process.

Keywords: leadership, governance, decision-making, participation, collaboration.

  1. Bäckman, E., Trafford, B. (2007), Democratic governance of schools. Council of Europe Publishing.
  2. Bass, B.M. (2008), The Bass Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research, and Managerial Applications. New York, NY: Free Press.
  3. Bogler, R., Somech, A. (2005), “Organizational citizenship behavior in school: how does it relate to participation in decision making?”, Journal of educational Administration, 53 (5), pp. 420-438.
  4. Boyatzis, R.E. (1998), Transforming qualitative information: thematic analysis and code development. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
  5. Braun, V., Clarke, V. (2006), “Using thematic analysis in psychology”, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3 (2), pp. 77-101.
  6. Cammisuli, D.M. (2018), “La leadership educativo-gestionale del dirigente scolastico: una riflessione critica sul ruolo alla luce della valutazione”, Formazione & insegnamento, 16 (1), pp. 35-42.
  7. Carvalho, M.J. (2012), “A modalidade de escolha do diretor na escola pública portuguesa”, Revista Lusófona de Educação, 25 (22), pp. 103-121.
  8. Clarke, V., Braun, V. (2013), “Teaching thematic analysis: Overcoming challenges and developing strategies for effective learning”, The Psychologist, 26 (2), pp. 120-123.
  9. Commissione Europea/EACEA/Eurydice (2017), Citizenship Education at School in Europe – 2017. Eurydice Report. Lussemburgo: Ufficio delle pubblicazioni dell’Unione Europea.
  10. Consiglio d’Europa (2018), Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture, vol. 3: Guidance for implementation. Strasburg: Education Department (Ed.).
  11. Day, C., Gu, Q., Sammons, P. (2016), “The impact of leadership on student outcomes: How successful school leaders use transformational and instructional strategies to make a difference”, Educational Administration Quarterly, 52 (2), pp. 221-258.
  12. Firestone, W.A., Riehl, C. (2005), A new agenda for research in educational leadership. New York: Teachers College Press.
  13. Giuliano, L., La Rocca, G. (2008), L’analisi automatica e semi-automatica dei dati testuali. Software e istruzioni per l’uso. Milano: LED Edizioni Universitarie.
  14. Kars, M., Inandi, Y. (2018), “Relationship between school principals’ leadership behaviors and teachers’ organizational trust”, Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 18 (74), pp. 145-164.
  15. Kinchington, F. (2023), “Empowering the school leaders of tomorrow: what lessons can we learn from the decision-making of today’s school leaders?”, International Journal of Leadership in Education, 26 (5), pp. 837-853.
  16. Leithwood, K., Sun, J., Schumacker, R. (2020), “How school leadership influences student learning: A test of “The four paths model”, Educational Administration Quarterly, 54 (4), pp. 570-599.
  17. Melchiori, R. (2014), “Per una leadership scolastica efficace: un framework per l’analisi”, Formazione & insegnamento, 12 (3), pp. 25-40.
  18. Notti, A.M. (2020), La formazione del dirigente scolastico. In P. Mulè, C. De Luca,
  19. A.M. Notti (a cura di), Insegnante e il dirigente scolastico nella scuola dell’autonomia tra didattica, governance e progetto culturale. Roma: Armando, pp. 373-383.
  20. Park, V., Datnow, A. (2009), “Co-constructing distributed leadership: District and school connections in data-driven decision-making”, School leadership and Management, 24 (5), pp. 477-449.
  21. Park, S.H., Hepburn, A. (2022), “The Benefits of a Jeffersonian Transcript”, Frontiers in Communication, 7 (779434), pp. 1-4.
  22. Quong, T., Walker, A. (2010), “Seven principles of strategic leadership”, International Studies in Educational Administration, 38 (1), pp. 22-34.
  23. Schulz, W., Fraillon, J., Losito, B., Agrusti, G., Ainley, J., Damiani, V., Friedman,
  24. T. (2023), IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2022 Assessment Framework. Cham: Springer Nature.
  25. Silva, G., Sá, V. (2017), “O diretor escolar em Portugal: formação e perfil profissional”, Espaço do Currículo, 10 (1), pp. 62-81.
  26. Somech, A. (2010), “Participative decision making in schools: A mediating-moderating analytical framework for understanding school and teacher outcomes”, Educational Administration Quarterly, 46 (2), pp. 174-209.
  27. Ten Bruggencate, G., Luyten, H., Scheerens, J., Sleegers, P. (2012), “Modeling the influence of school leaders on student achievement: how can school leaders make a difference?”, Educational Administration Quarterly, 48 (4), pp. 699-732.
  28. Trinchero, R. (2002), Manuale di ricerca educativa. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  29. Witziers, B., Bosker, R., Krüger, M. (2003), “Educational leadership and student achievement: The elusive search for an association”, Educational Administration Quarterly, 39 (3), pp. 398-425.

Francesca Fioretti, Dirigenza scolastica e gestione democratica. Uno studio in Italia e Portogallo in "CADMO" 2/2023, pp 78-92, DOI: 10.3280/CAD2023-002006